Whiskey with Witcher

We don't hit 100 episodes every day, so perhaps we went a little overboard when planning and recording last week's milestone. But that just means the party's not over yet! This week, we're continuing our celebration by answering all the questions we received from you—our listeners. What's the most surprising thing we've learned about Witcher canon? How do we choose the whiskeys for each episode? What show would we most like to see crossover with The Witcher? We even manage to answer a question about our Witcher “hear me outs” without sounding completely ancient, so you know you're getting us at our best (though not necessarily most sober). And while technically this is no longer our 100th episode, everyone knows the real excitement happens at the afterparty, anyway. So pour yourself another drink because you're all on the guest list!

Look, we're not sure how it happened either, but somehow we made to 100 episodes. That's 100 episodes of bourbon, bards, Brotherhoods, Blood Origins, bloopers, barrel-proofs, bone caves, broken bottles, bad subtitles, and beastly shots of bitter booze. Oh yes, and absolutely wonderful conversations about our favorite fantasy franchise with all of you. To commemorate this malted milestone, we crack open a bottle of a surprisingly delicious Polish rye whiskey—The Globe—while celebrating all that we love about The Witcher. From our most beloved characters, to the Netflix episodes we can't stop replaying in our heads, to the Witcher 3 quests that thrill us more than any other, to the Andrzej Sapkowski short stories that we come back to again and again, this is a liquored up love letter to Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri and the rest of the Continent. We hope you enjoy it and thank each and every one of you for joining us on this wild ride. Here's to the next hundred!

This week, we're taking a break from all the fandom talk to sip some of the finest Witcher tea—literally and figuratively! In this new side quest, we sample three different Witcher-themed teas from Geek Grind Coffee, offering our opinions on each of them while considering if they actually reflect the character they were inspired by. (A Yennefer tea with no lilac or gooseberries? What is this craziness?!?) We also wade into some of the juiciest Witcher gossip to hit over the past few years, offering our sassiest thoughts on all of it. Beau DeMayo! Toxic fans! Possible reasons why Henry Cavill is no longer on the show! (It strayed too much from the source material? Give us a break!) All this, plus another review shot, Tim reveals his least favorite social media platform and Valerie forgets how to drink.

The Witcher is going to Japan! Well, sort of. With a Witcher manga now available, a line of Japanese-influenced statues in stores and a new Witcher tabletop game inspired by feudal Japan shipping next year, Geralt's flirtation with the far east shows no sign of slowing. What's behind it? This week, we welcome Gosia, the passionate fan, translator and student of Japanology behind the Ronin of Rivia social media account to see if we can find out! Gosia discusses how her love of The Witcher and Japanese culture inspired her to study the intersection of the two, why Geralt seems to resonate with Japanese fans and whether Andrzej Sapkowski may have been influenced by samurai when he created him. Plus, she discusses the challenges of translating video games and fiction and sings the praises of the Witcher translation teams...before we ruin it all by talking about Hexer.

Find Ronin of Rivia on Instagram at @ronin_of_rivia and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/roninofrivia.

We're glad people can't see how bad we often are at videogames, but our latest guest shares her every jump, attack, and block with the world! Lucy Robyn is a Twitch streamer, podcaster and good friend of ours who not only joins us this week to talk about her love of The Witcher, but surprises us with a very nice bottle of Bushmills Black Bush to accompany the discussion. Lucy shares how the pandemic led to her discovery of the Witcher series and game, and how that developed into her role as a content creator, Twitch streamer and cohost of our favorite movie (and former Witcher) podcast, On the Path. She also discusses what it's like podcasting with a partner in a different continent, answers some stream-themed drunk questions and reveals why getting early access to a game isn't always the delight you'd expect.

Keep up with Lucy's latest streams by following her on Twitch, Youtube, Twitter and Instagram at @lucyjrobyn, and find her podcast, On the Path, on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and anywhere else you find podcasts.

Much like Sirens of the Deep itself, releasing this episode on the upcoming new Witcher animated movie was a bit delayed. But we think you’ll agree it's worth the wait, as we unpack the recent Geeked Week sneak peek (try saying that five times fast) and come to terms with the movie’s new release date. And that’s just the start! In the second half of the episode, we unveil our latest series of Whiskey With Witcher playlists and reveal how Valerie’s fandom factors into their creation. We also finally make good on our promise and take a shot of Jeppson’s Malort as a thank you for our latest five-star review. (We survive...barely.) It’s an episode of music and merpeople, accompanied by the strong, sweet notes of Blackened Cask Strength American Whiskey.

Hold music: "Local Forecast - Slower" by Kevin MacLeod

Between the cosplay, panels, meetups, screenings, booths, signings and overall excitement, there’s nothing better than a convention! Well, at least if you ignore all the crowds, lines, overpriced food, unshowered attendees and the possibility of coming home sick (something one of our hosts knows a lot about). Still, it’s hard to deny the appeal of gathering with thousands of fans to celebrate something you love…especially when that celebration also spills over into the local bars. In this week’s new episode, we discussing our history with conventions—both as attendees and exhibitors—including our recent trip together to San Diego Comic-Con. We share what it was like seeing Freya Allan, explain some of the issues we had with Comic-Con this year and ponder what we see happening to the convention landscape in the future. Plus, we unpack Netflix’s recent Geeked Week announcement. Are we in for a shipload of Sirens news? Or just an ocean of disappointment?

Our conversation on fanfiction continues, as the always insightful Rebekah Rodriguez-Lynn discusses some of the Witcher fics she’s authored and what it’s been like developing as a writer on AO3. Which of her favorite Witcher ships resonate with readers and which one, despite all her best intentions, has not? What has writing and reading fanfiction taught her? And what happens when she’s written fanfic while drinking? Plus, we answer some questions from Rebekah’s fans on Tumblr and subject our guest to some particularly challenging drunken questions. And yes, Tim gets some more verbal spankings—but don’t worry, he’s into them.

You can find Rebekah Rodriguez-Lynn on Twitter at @BuffySummers10, on Tumblr at @Fangirleaconmigo and on AO3 at Descarada.

The best writing often challenges you, so it’s only natural that our episode on writing and fanfiction does as well! We’re excited to welcome back one of our favorite past guests, fanfiction writer and Witcher expert Rebekah Rodriguez-Lynn, for a little wining and opining about all things fanfiction. We uncork two bottles of wine from Suveg Cellars—a local favorite of Rebekah’s—for a fierce, but fascinating discussion that gets into what makes something fanfiction, why fans devote so much of their lives writing and reading it and whether a fanfic can drift so far from the source material that it’s no longer a fanfic. In fact, we had so much fun that we ran a little longer than usual and decided to break the episode into two parts. Look for the rest of the conversation next week. Believe it or not, it gets even crazier!

You can find Rebekah Rodriguez-Lynn on Twitter at @BuffySummers10, on Tumblr at @Fangirleaconmigo and on AO3 at Descarada

You can be a fan of art. But is there an art to being a fan? There certainly is when we’re talking about our friend Maja, who over the past few years has become one of the most talented, distinct and sought after Witcher fan artists working today. Maja’s clever illustrations of characters like Yennefer, Jaskier and Geralt (to say nothing of our podcast art, which she designed) all boast a sophisticated sense of style and influence that would seem to extend well beyond her young age, and which we discuss thoroughly with her as Maja joins us on our latest episode. Plus, she shares some savage thoughts on The Witcher’s costumes, explains why she’s so fond of Yenskier and yes, answers our drunken questions in what’s one of our liveliest fandom discussions yet!

See Maja’s latest fanart by following her on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr at @perseruna